Schengen visa of 29 European countries to get digital; will greatly benefit Indians as...
The European Union is moving towards digital innovation in the form of a secure 2D barcode. This is one of the biggest reforms made in the Schengen visa system in decades. This move will speed up the process and provide a completely digital travel experience. On reaching the border, passengers will now scan the barcode, which will be directly linked to the centralized EU visa system. This will give immigration officials information about the validity of the visa and personal data. What benefit will Indian travellers get?
The European Union had issued 70,000 digital Schengen visas as a test to the players and staff participating in the 2024 Paris Olympics. After its success, it is now being fully implemented. People coming to Europe on a Schengen visa will have to submit their biometrics in person for the first time. This process will be fast and seamless for those who travel regularly to Europe.
Indian citizens travelling to Europe are going to get many benefits from the change in the Schengen visa. The most important of these is that the digital visa will facilitate entry through biometric e-gate access. This will greatly reduce the need for paperwork. Things will be much easier, especially for those who travel to Europe regularly. What is the Schengen Visa?
Schengen is a short-term visa, which allows travel within the Schengen area for up to 90 days. As such, it is quite popular among people who love to travel. The Schengen area includes 29 European countries like Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland.
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Indian Express
8 minutes ago
- Indian Express
What Trump is actually doing — and why India needs to press reform & reset
FOR all the disquiet in Delhi over US President Donald Trump's sugar-uncoated remarks, his rough and ready tactics on trade, there needs to be a sobering acknowledgment of two realities: one, like it or not, tough tactics often win on the street in a world that's never stopped being an unfair place; and, two, Trump has prevailed. Most mainstream economists dismissed his approach, warning that his aggressive tariff regime would spell disaster for the US economy. Yet, four months after unveiling his first tariff chart on April 2—dubbed 'Liberation Day'— and his second on Friday, Trump has gained enough ground to claim a significant victory. Like a gambler, who believes he is on a winning streak, Trump is set to roll the dice for far more sweeping changes in the post-war global financial and technological orders. The US President's bilateral negotiations are being described as the 'Trump Round' of trade talks, echoing the major rounds of GATT and WTO negotiations that shaped global commercial order. With the exception of Canada and China, most countries refrained from retaliatory tariffs. Instead, they lined up outside the White House, eager to strike deals before the extended August 1 deadline. India was among the early partners to start trade talks but failed to close a deal. While many major economies and middle powers signed agreements on Trump's terms, India now finds itself in the company of Brazil, Burma, and Switzerland facing steep US tariffs. To its credit, Delhi did recognise trade as central to Trump's second-term agenda. Prime Minister Narendra Modi's February 13 meeting with Trump produced a joint statement affirming the goal of expanding bilateral trade to $500 billion and launching time-bound trade negotiations. India negotiated in good faith and continuously. But the gap between India's negotiating brief and Trump's maximalist agenda proved too wide to bridge. Trump's growing impatience was evident in a barrage of tweets targeting India, while senior administration figures—Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Senator Marco Rubio—spoke publicly about the President's 'frustration' with Delhi's posture. Frustration had also defined Trump's first-term trade engagement with India. Robert Lighthizer, Trump's former US Trade Representative, recounts in his book, No Trade is Free, how difficult it was to conclude even a modest trade agreement with Delhi. He placed the blame not on India's bureaucracy, but on the entrenched interests of the Indian capitalists that fiercely guard the barriers protecting them from external competition. Lighthizer revealed he kept files on top Indian tycoons—whom he labeled 'oligarchs'—to better understand Delhi's negotiating strategy. Trump's complaint about India's 'obnoxious' non-tariff barriers rings familiar. India's neighbours have long voiced similar grievances, although a lot more politely. Yet, the deeper issue may be Delhi's underestimation of the scale and ambition of the Trump Round. Trump's goal was not merely a new bilateral deal here or there, but a systemic overhaul of the global trading order constructed after the Second World War and revamped at the turn of the millennium. On the campaign trail and in office, Trump has argued that the international trade regime has failed the American people—and must be overturned. The strategy, often dismissed as irrational, had a logic of its own. Stephen Miran, Trump's economic adviser, argued in a paper written before the presidential election that Washington could exploit the global export dependence on the US market—and allies' reliance on US security guarantees—to rewrite the rules. Miran describes the post-war free-trade order as a political construct, in which US policy sacrificed domestic industry for Cold War geopolitical goals. He proposed replacing blanket multilateralism with 'strategic pluralism,' forging separate deals with different nations based on US leverage. Before taking over at the Treasury, Bessent, too, hinted at the broader potential of tariffs—not just to reshape trade, but to pressure states on energy, currency, and strategic alignment. For Bessent, Trump's strategy was about a grand rebalancing of the global economy in America's favour. Trump has not held back. He has used tariffs for a variety of objectives. He imposed a 50% tariff on Brazil to weaken President Lula and help his rival Jair Bolsonaro. He is threatening tariffs on Indian and Chinese oil imports from Russia and using economic leverage to push BRICS countries away from their loose talk on de-dollarisation. In the last four months, three core pillars of Trump's strategy have become visible: using tariffs to narrow trade and fiscal deficits; mobilising investment to reindustrialise the US; and compelling trade partners to buy American energy and goods. Even countries with minimal trade ties to the US have had to offer something of interest to the White House. Pakistan's offering was its allegedly 'rich' oilfields. The EU, Japan, and South Korea have made sweeping pledges, including tariff concessions, major investments, and hefty American purchases. Whether these commitments are realised is another question. But they have delivered the optics of victory that Trump craves. What India offered remains unclear—but evidently, it was not enough. If Delhi was unprepared for Trump's counter-revolution in trade, it now faces an even more profound challenge: coping with a broader transformation of the global financial and technological order. Trump is targeting the foundations of the old monetary system. His administration's embrace of cryptocurrencies and stablecoins promises to reinforce the dollar's dominance over the global system and the US ability to leverage it. At the same time, Trump is aggressively deregulating artificial intelligence. At a recent AI summit in Pittsburgh, he announced a sweeping new policy to promote American AI dominance—especially over China—and pledged to invest a significant share of the revenues secured through trade negotiations into AI-driven industrial renewal. Trump's vision of American resurgence hinges less on outsourcing work and insourcing labour and more on technological innovation to restore US industrial might. In short, Trump is not just renegotiating trade. He is leading a radical overhaul of American capitalism by reshoring key elements of the supply chains, promoting a national industrial policy, and investing in tech-centric manufacturing in the United States. As India resumes trade talks with the US later this month, it must recognise this historic moment in the evolution of the global economy. Any negotiating strategy premised on maintaining the status quo at home at a time of radical change abroad will leave India more vulnerable—not just to US pressure, but to the accumulating costs of missing a long-overdue internal economic transformation. This is a moment that demands India to focus on reforming its own economy to make it globally competitive and technologically agile. India owes this to itself – and to its future. (C. Raja Mohan is a contributing editor on international affairs for The Indian Express)
Indian Express
8 minutes ago
- Indian Express
Coin mint, elephant stable and dockyard – chance discovery of cannonballs in Goa sheds light on Portuguese-era arsenal
The discovery of cannonballs during an excavation process in Goa in March this year has shed more light on a Portuguese-era arsenal, where coins were minted and warships built, a report submitted by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to the state's Tourism Department shows. The report, submitted in June, says the 'arsenal' also consisted of a gun foundry, a naval dockyard, and an elephant stable. 'European weaponry and naval equipment were either stored or manufactured on the site,' the report says. In March 2025, the ASI Goa circle directed the state's tourism department to halt the excavation work for a project in Old Goa, to allow 'proper documentation' after some cannonballs were discovered at a site. As per the report, the Goa Tourism Development Corporation (GTDC) had secured a central government grant to upgrade and provide visitor amenities at the Basilica of Bom Jesus. The work was going on west of the church complex to develop a Heritage Interpretation Centre and a parking lot. On March 22, the ASI Goa Circle spotted some cannonballs, following which the GTDC was instructed to stop the work and demarcate the exact location. Citing authors and historians of Portuguese maritime and colonial history, the report concludes that the area of discovery of cannonballs on March 22 is 'analogous with the location of arsenal' identified in the historical accounts over the years. 'This arsenal area lies within the city walls of Old Goa, which was the… capital of Portuguese Estado da India (State of India),' the report says. It says the area bears 'significant archaeological potential, which has also been testified by the spade work carried out' from April 7, 2025, to May 14, 2025. 'The archaeological profile of this area is marked by the presence of cannonballs of various sizes, weights, materials, in addition to… various kinds of pottery and porcelain sherds of distinct ceramic traditions,' the report adds. As per the ASI report, General Afonso de Albuquerque, who led the Portuguese conquest of Goa in the early 16th Century, initiated the complex's development and 'its grandeur was documented by European travellers'. 'Sources suggest that the arsenal may have predated Portuguese conquest and existed during the Adil Shahi period, implying it was a prominent edifice even before Albuquerque's arrival… When Albuquerque entered Goa, he found at the dock 40 large ships, 26 brigs, numerous fustas, and other materials related to warfare,' the report says. The arsenal was subsequently restructured. 'By 1540, about 700 workers were employed and the arsenal reached its zenith by the late 16th century,' it said. The report said that French navigator Francois Pyrard de Laval, during his 1608 visit, described it as 'well-fortified and equipped with stone-built rooms for artisans to reduce fire hazards.' A major fire broke out on June 9, 1753, damaging part of the arsenal. 'It was renovated and expanded in 1773. However, with the decline of Portuguese influence, the arsenal lost its importance and was closed in 1856,' the report adds. A tour guide, who has been conducting heritage tours in Old Goa for the past three decades, said, 'The arsenal was supposedly a walled enclosure within a walled city. Considering the importance of the gun foundry and mint, it was strictly guarded by the Portuguese, and only authorised personnel working at the site were allowed to enter. The naval dockyard was adjacent to it. The mint is believed to have shifted later to Panaji. Many documents were destroyed in a major fire in Lisbon sometime in the 18th Century, so we do not have the exact blueprints of these edifices.' 'To launch an attack on enemy ships or armed troops, the Portuguese, at the time, used stone cannonballs since they splintered into bits upon impact and caused more damage, as opposed to metal cannonballs. Portuguese cannons were typically smaller in size and could be mounted on ships or land. The limitation was that their range was limited. Such cannons were supposedly built at the arsenal here,' he said. In the book, The Portuguese in India [volume 1], British civil servant Frederick Charles Danvers wrote that when Albuquerque entered Goa in 1510, 'accompanied by his captains, about 1,000 Portuguese and 200 Malabarese' and received the keys of the fortress from the Governor and principal Moors of the city, he found 'a large quantity of artillery and stores, besides forty ships and sixteen fustas, quantities of merchandise, and some spacious stables containing 160 horses…'. The book, which the ASI has referred to, records that the arsenals at Goa at the time were 'full of artillery, saddles and horse gear, weapons, and all kinds of munitions and material of war.' It also mentions that soon after the first conquest of Goa, Albuquerque established a mint and gave instructions for the coinage of gold, silver, and copper money… after it was 'represented to him that the people of the city and the merchants were suffering from a great depression consequent on the want of currency.' The ASI report added that 'any future work in this area by an agency is likely to bring to light more such cultural vestiges.' An ASI official, requesting anonymity, said, '(The spot) was an arsenal area, which has been historically documented. During trial trenching, we found several scattered cannonballs and sporadic brick structures.'
Time of India
22 minutes ago
- Time of India
‘India no longer just a market, it's a mindset'
Kolkata: The 33rd Annual Conference of Views Exchange, held on Saturday at Taj Bengal, Kolkata, brought together thought leaders, policy shapers, and finance professionals for a day-long seminar titled "Breakthrough to Excellence". Under the leadership of president Rishi Khator, the conference reaffirmed its founding philosophy: "Explore, Expand, Excel". The day's historical resonance was not lost on the audience. In his inaugural address, Rishi Khator noted that Aug 2 marks the day the Indian tricolour was designed by Pingali Venkayya in 1876, and also the date the East India Company handed over power to the British Crown in 1858, a reminder of how transformative shifts often begin with symbolic gestures and bold ideas. The conference opened with a keynote by Sivakumar Sundaram, CEO of The Times of India. Citing today's The Economic Times, he spoke of the growing global confidence in India as a strategic investment hub, with giants like Apple, Coca-Cola, and FedEx increasing their footprint. "India is no longer just a market, it's a mindset," he said. You Can Also Check: Kolkata AQI | Weather in Kolkata | Bank Holidays in Kolkata | Public Holidays in Kolkata He urged chartered accountants to evolve from compliance officers to consequence navigators, playing a pivotal role in shaping their clients' entrepreneurial journeys. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Libas Purple Days Sale Libas Undo "Capital must flow like ideas — towards innovation, deep tech, and climate action," he remarked, while emphasising that AI will never replace the uniquely human judgment that CAs must reclaim. His call to "design for agility, go beyond numbers, and become the human voice in an AI world" struck a resonant chord with the audience. Chief guest Suresh Prabhu, former Union minister, highlighted the need for inclusive growth and economic coexistence. "India's future lies in its people," he said, advocating for middle-class expansion and district-level development as key to reaching the $35 trillion GDP milestone by 2047. He stressed a balance between savings and consumption, and the importance of public-private synergy to achieve equitable prosperity. Get the latest lifestyle updates on Times of India, along with Friendship Day wishes , messages and quotes !
